RSA200: Celebrating Together

Anna Charlotta Gardiner, Underwater Sacred Grove

As part of RSA200: Celebrating Together, Orkney-based artist and recipient of the Outer Spaces Scotland Award - RSA New Contemporaries 2025, Anna Charlotta Gardiner undertook a month-long residency in Aberdeen within the Outer Spaces studio network. Located on Shiprow, the proximity to the city’s maritime heritage was a point of departure in the creation of new work, which include historic felting techniques and hand-spun threads used to produce handcrafted fishing nets.

Gardiner’s practice explores our interconnectedness with - and responsibilities - towards nature, working across performance, costume, video, textiles and sound and utilising reclaimed materials. Her work references mythology, science, heritage and dreamworlds, and is often haunted by beings, inhabiting a space between the human and more-than-human worlds. Her performance work is heavily informed by her neurodivergence – through acts of masking and unmasking, embracing discomfort, and stimming through actions with sight, sound, touch and movement.

Anna Charlotta Gardiner (b. 1983) is a Finnish-Scottish visual and performance artist.  With a background in anthropology and academic publishing, she is currently undertaking postgraduate study with University of the Highlands and Islands, Orkney.  She is a recipient of the Outer Spaces Scotland Award - RSA New Contemporaries 2025, whilst her performance work was featured in the 2024 film The Outrun. 

Gardiner used this opportunity to invite artists and members of the local community into her studio to engage with her practice through a Studio Day for Artists and a Drop Spindle and Spinning Workshop.

RSA200: Celebrating Together

Founded in 1826, the Royal Scottish Academy supports art and architecture in Scotland. It is an independent, non-governmental institution, governed by Members to operate on a charitable basis. The RSA run a year-round programme of exhibitions, artist opportunities and events from the Mound, Edinburgh, and care for a nationally recognised collection. The RSA support artists and architects through awards, residencies, scholarships and bursaries.

In 2026 the RSA will celebrate its 200th anniversary. It is marking this occasion nationwide with RSA200: Celebrating Together. This partnership project will bring hundreds of artists, partners, galleries and institutions together for an extraordinary year of exhibitions, events and performances.